Background
Symptomatic adjacent-segment degeneration (ASD) is a common complication after lumbar fusion surgery. We want to evaluate the clinical and imaging outcome of full-endoscopic lumbar decompression (FELD) in comparison with extended posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) for ASD after lumbar fusion surgeries and develop a staged revision strategy.
Methods
This retrospective study enrolled 65 patients with ASD who treated with FELD (n=31) or extended PLIF (n=34) between January 2014 and January 2018. Clinical outcome evaluations were performed preoperatively, at 3, 12, 24 months postoperatively, including Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) score and Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) scores for function assessment, visual analog scale (VAS) scores for low-back pain and leg pain. Imaging outcome evaluations were performed preoperatively, immediately after surgery and at the last follow up, including disc height (DH) and lumbar lordosis (LL).
Results
The ratio of patients with adjacent segmental instability in the PLIF group was significantly higher than that in the FELD group (p<0.05). There was no significant difference in other baseline data for FELD and PLIF groups (p>0.05). Mean operative time, blood loss and length of hospital stay were significantly decreased for the FELD group (p<0.001). For patients with stable adjacent segments, there was no significant difference in preoperative and postoperative low-back pain, leg pain and function between 2 groups (p>0.05). The patients in PLIF group had restored DH after surgery, which was significantly higher than FELD group (p<0.05). For patients with unstable adjacent segments, the low-back and leg pain of PLIF group were significantly relieved than that in FELD group within 24 and 3 months after surgery (p<0.05). The function of PLIF group was significantly improved within 12 months after surgery (p<0.05). The DH was only significantly restored within 3 months after surgery (p<0.05). Recurrence was found in 2 (6.5%, p>0.05) patients in FELD group, while no patient in PLIF group had recurrence.
Conclusions
FELD could achieve satisfactory safety and efficacy for the treatment of stable ASD, which was not worse than PLIF. With less trauma and faster recovery, FELD may be an alternative surgical treatment for stable ASD.